During 2010/11, we used approximately 4.8 million cubic metres (mcm) of fresh water for both operational and non-operational purposes across our operations. This equates to some 333 cubic metres per £ million of revenue, compared with 419 cubic metres in 2009/10.

Of this, some 2.1 mcm (2009/10: 3.5 mcm) was extracted water used as feed water for our generating facilities in the US and for cooling underground electricity cables in the UK.  The majority of extracted water used in the UK is returned to source.

There is no direct comparison to years prior to 2008/09 due to the first time inclusion of water used by our ex-KeySpan operations.

In addition to our use of fresh water, we used around  1553 million cubic metres (2009/10: 1417 mcm) of sea water as cooling water at our US generating facilities. This water is used for once through cooling and returned to source.

National Grid does not have operations in water-stressed regions, defined by WBCSD as regions where water supplies are below 1,700 cubic metres/ person.